More signs

(Don Dale 2011 photo)

The VMFA sign proposal got me to thinking about another sign I've been seeing lately.

It's a bad sign. It's bad because it doesn't -- indeed, it can't -- do its job.

Henrico County has replaced the usual "Welcome to Henrico" sign on Westwood Avenue near Broad Street with this confusing mess. It seems to have been designed by a committee -- a committee more interested in making its points than in communicating with the public.

Let's start with the message.

Then again, what exactly is the message?

I looked at it as I drove by at least a dozen times without understanding it. Reading such a crowded jumble of ideas is almost impossible if you're traveling at 25 or 30 mph. It's an info-blur.

I assume the county is trying to make the point that it's now 400 years old. But the message is lost in a fog of 14 words and 9 numbers. The sign includes "400" twice (the largest is in a dismally stylized version). The words "Henrico County" are on there 3 times. The date of the county's founding is given 3 in three places. And at the bottom is a slogan: "Proud of our progress -- Excited about our future."

To see what a good sign looks like, shift your focus to the lower right: two words and an arrow. Simple. Direct. Understandable.

I'm not saying that Henrico's 400th anniversary sign should be as stripped down as a one-way sign. But it should be simpler.

So let's get down to the essentials. "Henrico County," "Welcome" and "400th anniversary" are necessary. We don't need a basically meaningless slogan about the past and the future. And we don't need the county seal, the dates and all that other folderol.

Any designer who knows about signs that are meant to read by drivers would be horrified by this camel-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-horse.

The sign should say "Welcome to Henrico County, Celebrating 400 Years, 1611-2011." That's the essence after all the junk is stripped away.

Less really is more.